The magnificent Hohenzollern Castle in Germany – only carry-on luggage

The next morning in Stuttgart (after a great evening in Esslingen) I woke up with an extra spring in my step!

As you may already know, I am a great lover of castles. They just have something great about them that I absolutely love and today we would visit one of the most famous castles, not only in Germany, but in all of Europe!

The castle was the Hohenzollernschloss – one of the very few castles in the world, which is still in the possession of the original family.

It's such an iconic place that lures you for miles before you can even set foot in it.

We quickly parked the car and took the bus, which takes you from the castle parking lot to the actual entrance of the castle.

(* You can go, but it's a bit difficult and frankly, I'd rather spend the extra time exploring the castle than going up a driveway.)

Do not worry, if you like a good walk, you still get to the entrance, which then leads an almost winding road up to the actual castle.

Fortunately, the path is paved with many beautiful distractions that you can reach before you even notice it, right by the castle.

Just when we arrived at the castle, it started to snow and it made everything so much magical. It literally felt like something out of a fairytale and was such a great setting to get into the castle itself.

Instead of getting in immediately, we distractedly spent some time exploring the exterior of the castle (which was just gorgeous and everything I had hoped for)!

Finally, we made our way to the castle, which was as impressive inside as outside.

The castle is not actually inhabited by the owners, the Princes of Prussia and the Prince of Hohenzollern (there is an old reason why this castle belongs to two princes – each of whom owns ¼ or own). So it is not heated. Does not make any sense.

As you stroll through the corridors and the many sumptuous rooms, you will learn so much about the old royal family that once called them home, about their relationship with the British royal family and even how thrifty they all were.

The next hour I spent exploring every single detail in this amazing castle.

… before it goes outside to explore other parts of it.

If you have the opportunity, head down the stairs to the museum, where you can see the royal insignia and even a tobacco box that once saved the king's life by keeping a bullet from hitting him.

Oh, and you can also see spectacular Meissen porcelain here (example eagle – worth more than the royal crown above).

We then went through, deep into almost secret tunnels in the castle (or at least they felt that way) …

… before you emerge outside again and take another breathtaking view of the castle.

At that time, the snow had increased significantly, so that not only the castle, but also the surrounding landscape seemed magical.

The cold quickly brought us to sleep, so we made a short stop in the chapel before heading to the restaurant to eat some bone-warming goulash and belly steaks.

We ended the event with a whirlpool before saying goodbye to the castle and driving back to Stuttgart.

Back in Stuttgart, still at a high point, when we finally visited the castle Hohenzollern, we set out to find the officially best gin in the world – the Ginstr!

Ginstr is a brilliant startup success story written by two friends who love gin. Ginstr is a brilliant example of passion that turns into a fantastic product (which, of course, leads to financial success and many, many awards). ,

But it does not make sense to just talk about gin, it's just for drinking and so we did just that. We sampled gin, tonics and gimlets – all of that was a treat.

And so we decided that it was finally time to try something we had not done properly since our arrival in Stuttgart!